florida state university college of music performance practice

intention of tempo but at the core, time signatures remained the prime indicator of
tempo. 373 While Bach never wrote specifically about the subject, Sherman points to
several of Bach‟s students, Thieme and Kirnberger, who sought to write down the tenets
that were taught them by their teacher. According to other eighteenth-century sources,
another consequent factor-affecting tempo is note values, which have “intrinsic
speeds.” 374 Logically, this belief suggests that a preponderance of faster notes like
sixteenth notes may imply a slower tempo than quarter or half notes. 375
Writings of the time, Penna (1684) and Brossard (1703), chronicled the concept
that the tempo of common time with no alteration was referred to as tempo ordinario
(plain or ordinary tempo). 376 This was known in Germany as schlechte Tact and
Mattheson specifically associates this to mean the C time signature. 377 Again, it is true
that Bach never explicitly used the word tempo ordinario but scholars are comfortable in
connecting him with the term because it was used in Bach‟s cousin‟s (J.G. Walther)
Musical Lexicon for which Bach served as a promoter. 378 Various numerical assignments
have been suggested to correspond to the idea of tempo ordinario. As a reference, some
scholars have suggested that tempo ordinario was reproduced from the normal human
pulse while others indicate a range of MM 60 to MM 85. 379 George Stauffer provides an
answer that is more concrete assigning a quarter note equaling MM 72 while Robert
Marshall, who cites anecdotal evidence of Bach‟s reported brisk tempos, feels that the
quarter was taken around MM80. 380
Sherman, in an online appendix to his earlier submission to Early Music,
questions if it were possible that performance conventions in Bach‟s time dictated turba
choruses in passions were to be performed faster than other movements. 381 In the
passions, time signatures for the turba choruses are usually written in the preceding
recitatives and are not separated by a double bar line to encourage an immediate
373
Sherman, “Bach‟s notation of tempo and early music performance,” 455.
374
Sherman, “Bach‟s notation of tempo and early music performance,” 456.
375
Ibid.
376
Ibid.
377
Ibid.
378
Ibid.
379
Bernard D. Sherman, “Do the Turbae Movements in Bach‟s Passions Undermine the Idea
of the Tempo Ordinario?” http://bsherman.org/turba.htm (accessed June 14, 2007).
380
Ibid.
381 Ibid.
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